Complete Ghost Stories

M. R. James

Jan 2017 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

The art of telling a ghost story is a refined one, and Montague Rhodes James was a master of the genre.

Complete Ghost Stories is part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics bound in real cloth with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by author and playwright David Stuart Davies.

M.R. James draws the reader into narratives which, seeming innocuous, become darker and darker in gentle turns – and then confront readers with some of the most unforgettably frightening images in British literature. Complete Ghost Stories contains every timeless masterpiece from each of his four collections: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925).

About the author

Montague Rhodes James was born in 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage, Kent, where his father was a curate. He was educated at Eton College and then King's College, Cambridge where he won many awards and scholarships. He enjoyed a distinguished career, rising to the position of Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1913. An eminent medievalist and scholar of international status, James published many works on biblical and historical antiquarian subjects. He began writing ghost stories almost as a diversion from his academic work and as a form of entertainment for his colleagues. His first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, was published in 1904 and began the career for which he became most famous. He would go on to write five further ghost story collections, before his death aged seventy-three in 1936.